Catching Up

So, it's been awhile since I really posted anything. I was mostly just lazy. Well ... I was traveling at the beginning of January. And I was sick with a nasty cold for about two weeks. But mostly I just didn't want to upload pictures. I don't know this is such a pain. It really doesn't take too long but I always put it off. I thought of doing it every day for the past few weeks, but I always decided to knit instead.

The good news is I have two projects to show!

But first my Christmas haul. I know it is a little after the fact, but Christmas was good to me, knitting-wise.

My mother-in-law did good. I got a beautiful wood swift from a Washington-based company called Dragonfly Turnings and With Wood, Naturally and a ball winder. Yeah! I spent a couple of days after Christmas winding up a lot of my stash.







She also got me some luscious yarn: three skeins of alpaca from Connecticut-based Twin Gate Farm in a color-way called "Crap Apple." Yum. And she got me three balls of baby blue yarn to make something for my nephews and another ball of different kinds of yarn wound together to make a open garter-stitch shawl. I may work on this and then give it to her for Christmas next year.

From my parents, I got three knitting books (OK, I picked them out so it wasn't really a surprise, but I was excited to finally get them).

And from my brother I got a gift certificate for Knitpicks. And I haven't redeemed it yet! I am waiting til I feel the urge to buy yarn. I guess that is pretty much all the time, but sometimes the urge is very strong and that is what I am waiting for.





So that is it: all in all a pretty good haul.

So since Christmas I have been working on the "Rachel" tunic sweater from Hot Knits (which has some cute patterns, but also a lot of stuff most definitely not hot. Maybe the "hot" in the title refers to how wearing the sweaters will make you feel, cause a lot of them are big, bulky things). I am done with the sleeves and almost done with the back. I using Cascade Eco. So far pretty easy, but as you can see I saved the front for last. I figured that by the time I get to that part I'll have done the math to figure out where to put the short rows. And now that the temps have dropped in Maryland maybe I'll actually finish it and be able to wear it. (We had snow over the weekend, just a dusting but it was pretty. Also a little odd since earlier last week G and I had our windows open all night it was so warm).





And a sock for G with hand dyed yarn.





I had two great knitting group outings this week. On Saturday, the Baltimore Knitting Meetup met at Teavolve in Fells Point. Teavolve was fun and I talked to some very cool knitters. I really like that group because I always meet new people.

And last night I hauled myself out of work a tiny bit early to go to the Columbia knitting group, which is always fun and sometimes wild.

So people are excited about A Tangled Skein. If I hear anything about when it is opening, I'll post about it.

New Yarn Shop in Hyattsville

Last month, G, L and I went to dinner at Franklin's in Hyattsville. And G noticed a sign in the building across the street that said ... coming soon A Tangled Skein (or Web?) ... yarn shop!

While, Hyattsville is not next door. And there are at least six other yarn shops closer to me, this new one will be especially nice. You see Franklin's is one of G's very favorite places on Earth. It is a micro brewery and pub (with really good food). When he was in grad school, G lived a five-minute walk away and credits about 10 of his current pounds to Franklin's beer. It is actually a cute place: It's very bright, has nice tall ceilings so the smoke isn't too heavy. And it is has a cute "general store" that sells old fashioned candy, cute little toys, more beer and random stuff. It is at the intersection of Gallatin and Route 1. And now, across the street, it appears there will be a yarn store. I always like going to Franklin's anyway, but once that shop opens, I think I may be suggesting we spend the afternoon in Hyattsville: lunch at Franklin's, a bit of shopping while G sits in the bar (I'll drive of course), maybe a movie at the Greenbelt theater that shows "art" films. Good times. I wish I knew when it was opening. I couldn't find anything about it on google.

p.s. I am knitting, will post about that, and the cool knitting stuff I got for Christmas--I've just been too lazy to upload photos--later today or this weekend.

Merry Christmas!

Tomorrow G and I are off to Connecticut to spend Christmas with his family. I must admit, I am having a hard time this year not going home. I love Christmas with my family. It's very cozy. We're a big family: eight not counting the spouses and kids. But that big circle of people creates this wonderful, cozy, intimate space. And I miss it. I miss the whole season: baking with my mom (my favorites are the gingerbread cookies with just a touch of frosting), shopping with my dad for my mom's presents (an annual tradition that we didn't do this year for the first time in a decade); going to church on Christmas Eve; listening to Christmas songs (mom starts them early); watching White Christmas and It's a Wonderful Life. After church and a yummy dinner on Christmas Eve, my brothers and I would help my mom put out the gifts. With six kids, that took some doing. There were PILES and piles of presents. I have no idea where she hid them all. Getting up early on Christmas morning and opening our stockings (all handmade, see mine and Geoff's).
The stockings are my favorite part. Dad makes tea and hot chocolate (I like mine with cinnamon and chili pepper!). Then we opened presents until noon. When I was very little we all just opened our gifts at once. But then we decided it would be more fun to take turns. But with eight, that took forever. Then we went to all opening one present at once, showing, and then moving on to the next.

A typical December evening at my parents': my dad is playing Christmas songs on his keyboard in the living room. My mom or brothers are cooking dinner, another brother is reading in the living room by the tree. Maybe the youngest is watching a South Park Christmas specials. It's idylic without being cheesy. Everybody is happy to be together. Doesn't mean there isn't any arguing or fighting, but no one doesn't want to be there. No one is affecting that "holidays suck," "families are all dysfunctional" 'tude.

But we grew up. My married brothers started going to their wives' homes for Christmas. We all live too far apart to do Christmas Eve w/ one side and Christmas day with the other. So now it is my turn to go to the in-laws and I am not happy. I have been kinda pouting. I don't like that I won't be spending Christmas with MY family for the foresable future (you see, Thanksgiving is our big day and I never want to miss that either, so doing an every-other-year thing is not an option. Unless we could do Thanksgiving AND Christmas at my family one year and then just Christmas at G's the next. But that probably won't fly. :)

But then I remember that this is my first Christmas with my NEW family, my husband. And we can create our own traditions (borrowing heavily on mine, of course. We'll see if any of his make the cut. By the way, I am not really this shrewy in person. His family is lovely and I'm sure I'll have a lovely time.). For example, I am going to continue the stocking tradition. My mom made G a beautiful stocking this year and gave me mine to bring home, plus gave us a bag of goodies for them. I managed to stuff both stockings by closing my eyes so I wouldn't see what was going in mine. I am going to bring them along to CT, and G and I will open those in the morning before we go downstairs, just the two of us. And for the past two years we copied my family's tradition of decorating the tree on a Friday night with a fun dinner. Another cool new tradition: last weekend we had a fabulous holiday feast with a turkey and this amazing stuffing, cranberry sauce and a yummy pumpkin cake. (We were trying out our new covered roasting pan, a wedding gift.) We decided to cook this meal every year in mid December.

So, I do look forward to our new traditions, but it is lonely thinking about not being with my family.

Ok, on to knits. I finished G's scarf. Even blocked it. Here it is ready to be wrapped up.



And I finished the first sleeve for my sweater. I started with the sleeve, so I still have a ways to go, but this yarn knits up fast. It is Cascade Eco, 100 percent wool. I like it. Hope it doesn't itch too much.



And here's a spot of cheer. I opened my door to find a box of the best chocolates in the world from a work associate. Yeah! As you can see I've already dug in.




Merry Christmas everyone!

Mid Week Update

I have three projects on needles. One is a Christmas gift for G. It is almost done and I can probably show it here, but just in case.

Also, I tracked down a very special gift for him today. He'll be so surprised! I can't wait to pick it up and see his face when he opens it.

I am also working on a hat w/ some stash yarn. It seems to be going OK. But it is really hard on my wrists. I think it is the combination of really rough yarn and wooden double pointeds. It is a fight to get the stitches off the needles sometimes, even though I am using bigger needles than the yarn calls for.

The third project is a sweater. In truth I started this sweater a couple of months ago but wasn't getting gauge. Well, I was getting gauge, but didn't like the gauge. I am just going for it now, who cares. It's my first sweater.

Saw the winter Knitty is up. I really like the red and pink hat on the "cover." But colorwork is very down on my list of things to learn so I'll probably never make it.

I am taking Friday off this week. I get to take a "comp" day to make up for the two weekend days I worked in Arizona. Yeah. I plan to do some shopping and then actually mail gifts on time.

And then on Sat., G and I are going to see Damien Rice in D.C. I am very excited about this show. I got the tickets the day they went on sale and apparently they sold out very quickly. I think we are going to do dinner in D.C. before. I need to check into restaurants. The show is at the Lincoln Theatre (normally, theaters in the U.S. that spell it theatre annoy me, but this one looks so pretty on the inside that I'll let it pass) on U Street, near the Ethiopian place we went last time. So we might eat there again. But I would kind of like to try something new too.

Sad news: my coworker B (who works in the Wis. headquarters) is moving to Seattle. He and his partner had been contemplating it for awhile, but decided to make the move after Wisconsin voted for a marriage amendment in Nov. This saddens me. He is a great coworker and will be missed. And I am sad that my former home state passed that amendment. I always brag about how great Wis. is (it's got a amazing library system; you don't have to pay $1 per reserve like you do in Baltimore County!) and now I feel like I can't brag as much.

And my college roommate, who currently lives in Alexandria, is moving back to Madison. This is less sad, because I'll get to see her on my fourish trips back to Madison each year. We'll probably end up seeing each other as often as we do now. But I am still sad cause we always talked about doing things in the city that we didn't get to do yet. Last winter we met on a Sunday at the National Gallery of Art and had a blast and talked about doing more museum days. And I really wanted to spend a day in Alexandria with her on a nice spring Saturday. It's great news for her and husband. He got a wonderful new job. They'll be so close to her parents and be able to buy a whole house for LESS than the teeny little apartment they live in now.

So, it's been an emotional week. It was really bad the other day when I got teary while watching a CVS commercial. Dude, the pharmacist went to some guy's home after work to cut his pills cause he wasn't able to. How could I NOT get teary?

hee hee hee. Now it just makes me laugh at how sappy I am.

Back from Arizona

I was so happy to arrive home late on Wednesday night. Phoenix was beautiful, but I didn't get to go outside during daylight until Tuesday afternoon; I arrived there on Saturday night.

I was exhausted and very dry! I couldn't moisturize enough. There is the tiniest possibility that G could someday be transferred to Phoenix. I don't think I would like it much. It is just too dry!

But the mountains were beautiful. This is the amazing view from my room. And it was warm enough to sit by the pool on Tue. afternoon, which was lovely.



My room was nice. All the staff got upgraded to suites. Check out my bedroom. And my sitting room. :) Seemed like a waste to have all the space just for me.





I had a yummy sushi dinner with my coworkers one night. We went way off property so we could relax and not worry about attendees lingering around.

I did a lot of knitting on the plane there and back. Almost done with G's Christmas gift. I'll be able to finish it up when he works late this week.

I started a hat over the weekend to have something to knit while he read Catcher in the Rye to me. It is one of his favorite books; he used to teach it as a high school teacher. He's got a voice for radio (reminds me of Garrison Keillor) and reads very well. It was a lovely way to spend a Friday evening.

The Road to Tibet

My brother and his girlfriend are doing well in Tibet. Here are some pictures they sent of their students, a gathering of monks and somewhere on the road from China to Tibet.







They've both been sick a lot but seem to be on the mend. Good.

He said he recently used a washboard to wash his clothing for the first time in his life and got some blisters. Hmmmm... they've been on the road for more than a month. Did he really have that many pairs of clean underwear? Ewwwww.... Seems that his girlfriend (our sister-in-law's youngest sister) has been more diligent about clean clothes and has the blisters to show.

So far this is my favorite story. In his last e-mail, he wrote: "I’ve never seen such competition for selling yogurt, until now. In 'Yak Square' (that’s the real name of it) these old ladies, looking half asleep, set up their bowls full of yogurt and wait for an interested customer to come by. Then all of a sudden they spring to life and bombard you, shoving their bowls of yogurt at you, all shouting and probably saying something like 'This yogurt is made from the finest yak's milk.' Our friend Loyo, who helps us get our groceries does the negotiating and we just stand back and enjoy the scene."

I miss him but love getting the emails and finally seeing photos. It is amazing what they are seeing.

A Gift for Me!

Look what my (blogless now, but hopefully not for long) friend L made for me! It is the Wandering Aran Fields capelet from Wrap Style.




Isn't it beautiful?

It was perfect for my trip to Arizona. I often get cold on the plane or extremely hot. So I wanted something to wrap around my shoulders that wouldn't be too bulky and that I could easily take off and put in my purse.

Check out the beautiful cable work:



I love the color; I love the yarn. It is from knitpicks, one of the alpaca blends. It is wonderfully soft.

And it isn't the first knitted gift from her. She made me this scarf from Scarf Style for my birthday before last.



L was my roommate when I moved out to Baltimore. We made a good team: she took out the garbage, I made dinner (OK, not every night). We would sit and knit in the evenings while she told me funny and sometimes horrible stories from the vet clinic where she works. We watched Love Actually and Pride and Prejudice (the long, BBC version) like once a month. I miss our girly nights. We still have them, but now they are planned in advance. I miss the possibility that every night would turn into a girl knit night. (Don't misunderstand, I love my husband and being married to him; I wouldn't trade him for more girl nights, ever. But it is possible to love what you have and miss what you had. I am sure anybody who is a parent gets that!)

L is also incredibly generous: witness the incredibly beautiful hand knitted gifts above, but also, as one of the personal attendants at my wedding (I didn't have bridesmaids), she took tons of pictures at my reception with her digital camera. She doesn't think twice about staying overnight to take care of a sick friend, sick friend's child and dog. And if one of her friends needs a place to crash, she'll open her home to them and their pets. She has taught me a lot about being a good friend.

Thank you, L! I love you dear. Sorry if I made you blush. :) Can't wait for shopping tomorrow!!

My Brilliant Husband

My talented and handsome husband won second place in the Baltimore City Paper fiction contest! Don't mind my bragging. I am just so happy for and proud of him.

Read the story here.

Thanksgiving Recap

First, a finished object!! My socks are done. I love them.



Lately I feel like I've been running from trip to trip, hurrying to get my laundry done and squeeze out a blog post before I leave. I am only just back to normal after my Thanksgiving trek home. Laundry is drying on the folding rack and it had better dry fast because tomorrow I am off to Phoenix for a work trip. I've had a reprieve from work travel for a few months, but now it picks up again. I do enjoy most of the travel, but this Dec. trip I take every year is rough: when I return home, Dec. whizzes by and I am always a step behind, getting my tiny Christmas tree up and shopping and don't even think of baking.

But, I will have lots of time to knit on the ONE small present I am knitting this year that I can't work on at home.

I knit a lot last week on the drive to and from Wisconsin. Thanksgiving was wonderful. In my family, it is not just a day. It's an four-day event. On Wed. my mom bakes the first turkey (she needs two huge birds to feed 40some people). G and I made the cranberry sauce. Ok, I just stirred it once; it was his project. Wed. night is the first family dinner with my grandparents and brothers and sometimes an aunt's family who came in early.

Then on Thursday, the crowds trickle in. Or usually come all at once and you kiss like 20 people in five minutes. My mom's four sisters and two of her cousins and all their families come for the weekend. Another turkey is cooking, plus potatoes and stuffing and gravy and all the other stuff. Everyone pays $6 for eight changes on the football pool grid (I didn't win any cash this year; in fact I haven't won since college, when the $8 was a HUGE windfall!).

I got to hold nephew number one. He was tiny and adorable and slept a lot, except for each time I held him when he was fussy. But we discovered that G has "the bounce" that puts babies to sleep. Good to know.

Baby O and grandpa taking a nap:



My brother came w/ my niece M. My sister-in-law and the other baby boy stayed home to rest w/ her mom. Little M is not yet three and is already a world traveler. She's been to Canada, of course (seeing as she is half Quebecoise), Japan, France, England, I'm not sure where else ... So, she does fine on the plane. And it was her first trip with just Papa. I don't think she even noticed that her maman was not there. After all, she had an entourage of my younger girl cousins for the next three days. At almost all times there was a group of five girls surrounding her. She loved it!


So, Thursday is spent eating (mostly), napping, watching football, catching up with relatives, playing games and more eating.

A few of my younger cousins knit. In fact they are the ones who started the knitting craze in my family. One summer vacation two middle-schoolers taught all the women how to knit. Here's two working on scarves:



Then on Friday, we have leftovers for lunch and then about 34 of us (we lose a few to basketball tournaments, naps, work) trek to the a movie. This year it was Happy Feet. We arrive at least an hour early to get in line. And when they open the doors, we are that annoying family running to save three rows of seats. Happy Feet was cute; G could not stop laughing at it. He hasn't seen a children's movie since, probably, he was a kid. "It's about a penguin who tap dances to get more fish!" he kept repeating.

Friday night dinner is always chili and another soup. In the past I've made tortilla soup, but this year it was my uncle's hamburger soup. My aunt J makes the chili and homemade butter (she does this with her kindergarten class; I don't know how, but it is tasty!).

After dinner some of us played a very fun game called Mafia. One person narrates the game and designates a few people to be mafia and the rest townspeople (with a doctor, cop and vigilante for good measure). The mafia know who each other are, but everybody else just knows what they are. Then you have town meetings where you try to decide how is bad and then vote to execute one person. This could be a mafia or a townsperson. You don't really know. Then everyone goes to sleep and the mafia wake up to kill a townsperson. And it goes on until there are just a few people alive and the winners are the group that dominates: if there are more mafia alive; they win, etc. Google it for more info. It is fun and a good game to play with adults and kids. And good for new people to get to know the family. It was G's second Thanksgiving with us, and he did really good w/ the adults, but the little girls were all one to him until playing Mafia. Now he can see them as individuals, instead of M's entourage.

Saturday is usually shopping for the women and sports-watching for the guys, but G and I left on Sat. since we had to drive home. We packed up our car w/ tons of wedding gifts and were able to bring everything home except a mixer. Don't have counter space for it anyway.

I did a lot of knitting and (finally!) finished those socks! I like them and I liked doing socks, but I think I am going to take a break from them for a bit to work on bigger projects.

Stitches Classes

This is long overdue. I took two classes at Stitches East. The first was an intro to entrelac by Margaret Fisher. It was great! She was a very good instrutor. See my little swatch.



I am really excited about entrelac. When I've looked at instructions in books, I couldn't picture how it worked. I am the kind of learner who needs to see things AND read instructions to really get it. I love finding web tutorials with pictures and--even better-video. So this entrelac class was perfect for me. Margarat talked us through the process. She gave us great handouts with diagrams and she walked around the room at each step to see how we were doing and if we had questions.

Lately, I've seen Lady Eleanor from Scarf Style everywhere and I just love it. But I think my first entrelac project will be this bag.



I saw it in the marketplace at Stitches but didn't want to buy a kit. When I went back to ask about the pattern, they were sold out. Of course, I couldn't remember whose pattern it was. I thought it was a Noni, cause all the cool felted bags are Noni, right? When I didn't see it on the Noni site, I emailed Nora. She was so sweet and emailed me back right away that she didn't have an entralac bag pattern. I was wowed by her service.

So, I sent an email to KnitU and someone on it remembered the bag AND that it was a Plymouth kit. So, I found the pattern on kpixie and now I just need to pick out yarn. I will probably use knitpicks Wool of the Andes. I think I'll try to do similar colors for my first bag. But I think this also would be very cute in shades of one one color, like blues or greens, as long as the shades are different enough to show the triangles after felting. I've never felted before. I just think it will be so cute. And since I travel a lot, it will be a great travel tote. It will probably be a few months until I get to this project though cause I have a few other in the queu ahead of it.

My other class was about short rows and covered three different types: yarn over, wrap and turn and Japanese. The instructor was Maureen Mason-Jamieson; she was also great. The class was bit more frustrating. It was later in thd day; I was tired. Plus, I didn't have the right supplies: I only had one kind of yarn and I messed up a few times so got really behind. But Maureen was wonderful and again, she demonstrated each technique in small groups. And she also gave us good, detailed instructions (if you follow them word for word, something I wasn't doing at first). So I saw how everything was done in class then I took out the instructions and redid everything at home. In this picture, the three rows on the left were shorts done on the KNIT side and the three rows on the right were short rows done on the PURL side.



As you can see in the top portion, I need some work doing the wrap and turn and Japanese methods on the PURL side.



And I got these cute shawl sticks at Stitches. I actually got three, but lost one right away. I am bummed about that: it was a more neutral creme shade that would have gone with everything. The green one will be a stocking stuffer for my mom.



Tomorrow G and I are off to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving. I can't wait to see my family! We are driving, so I'll have A LOT of car knitting time. I will finish that damn sock and start a sweater! And maybe I'll bring the scarf I am making for G, but not sure if I'll actually have any time to work on it when he isn't around. I'm off to Phoenix in Dec. for work, so I'll have plenty of time to finish it then.

When I am back, I WILL have photos of me wearing a PAIR of socks. Really.

Have a wonderful holiday everyone!

Two Nephews!

I have two new nephews! Owen was born on Nov. 3 and Alex was born Nov. 13. I was thinking they would both be girls; it is so exciting to have nephews!

Since I don't live near either of them, I can't bring food to stock their freezer. But when my niece was born, almost three years ago, I sent my brother and his wife some stuffed chicken from Omaha steaks. And during the past yeaar, my coworker and I sent meals from Home Bistro to sick coworkers.

Anybody have any experience with any other ready-to-go-meals?

I will get to see Owen next week in Wisconsin for Thanksgiving! I can't wait.

Seriously, it is the best being an aunt, now times three!

Fun With Quizzes

I didn't feel like actually writing a post today so I am having fun with quizzes. I've seen this first one everywhere. I AM from Wisconsin. I know how to say fog. But I don't pronounce "bag" like "beg." I draw the line. Oh, and FYI for the quiz writer, people in Wisconsin say "soda" at least in the Madison and Milwaukee areas. I learned that one the hard way when I moved to Milwaukee from Iowa and asked for a pop: My classmates laughed at me.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
The Midland
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The South
The West
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Well it is cold ...

You are exactly 32% naked!

You're dressed a little conservatively. It wouldn't kill you to loosen up a little. take off that tie, let your hair down. See what happens.

Are You Naked???
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

And good thing I aced this one.

Your Language Arts Grade: 100%

Way to go! You know not to trust the MS Grammar Check and you know "no" from "know." Now, go forth and spread the good word (or at least, the proper use of apostrophes).

Are You Gooder at Grammar?
Make a Quiz

I took the 80s band one too, but I was some band I had never heard of ... hmmm ... what does that say about me? :)

Well, that was a good 45 minutes wasted. 45 minutes I could have been knitting ...

Stitches Shopping

My first Stitches was an experience. It was my first knitting-related large-scale event and I really liked it, for the most part.

The coolest part was seeing all the knitters in, what my friend L termed, their yarn bling. I saw several clapotis, some of the capelets from Shawl Style, lots of lace, some amazing sweaters, hats, scarves and mits. I wanted to ask every person about their creation, but I didn't. If I had, I wouldn't have had time to shop!

And shop I did on Saturday and, briefly, on Sunday.

Sat. afternoon, I met L for shopping. I did pretty good. I made a list of things I was looking for, which helped me focus. I was really overwhelmed at first. It was crowded and I was sort of wandering aimlessly. As the afternoon progressed, the crowd thinned. After reading the reports of Maryland Sheep and Wool, I had imagined mad rushes for the bins and yarn being fought over. But it was very civil. My main issue was getting blocked in some of the booths.

All my loot in a tote.



So, first on my list was to get yarn for manly socks for G. I couldn't decide between two skeins of Mama E's hand dyed stuff, so I got them both. G picked the blue one for his socks.



I found three cool patterns in Rosie' Yarn Cellar's booth and got this pink laceweight merino. It is called "bubblegum." I love it. It's for lace wrap for me. Probably.



Then, I had to have this Noro Blossom from the Woolstock sale bin. It is my first Noro. I normally find the Noro yarn to be too scratchy. The colors are amazing, but I like soft yarn. But this Blossom is a blend of wool, mohair, silk and nylon and and it is soft. I am picturing a shawl. Do I make anything other than shawls? I feel like I can't get enough. :)



And I got this free ball during my class coffee break.



So, Saturday was great. I talked to some lovely women, bought some great stuff and had fun shopping w/ L. I bought more, but don't have time to upload now. Plus I took two classes. I'll talk about those and post about the rest of my purchases next week after we get back from a short trip to Connecticut.

Looks like I need to ask for a yarn swift and ball winder for Christmas ...

I Don't Hate Lionbrand

It's not my FAVORITE yarn, but I don't hate the stuff. I have a container full of it. Just wanted to clarify on my last post. In fact, I meant to add this to my last post but I forgot and was busy all weekend w/ Stitches and suddenly I have comments and I was afraid I didn't do a full disclosure. So here it is:

Like Yarn Coffee states, I think it has its purpose. I used it to make this shawl, which later on its own accord decided it wanted to be a bellydance hip scarf. An important trait of any bellydance hip scarf is that it be washable, cause, um, I sweat. This is done in Lionbrand microspun, which is very soft and comes in a variety of vibrant colors.

I think the color spectrum of Lionbrand is one of its best traits. In many of its yarns, you have a choice between several different shades of one color. Instead of being stuck with one green, you can choose from several different greens. This was one reason I was surprised by the dullness of the new hand dyed stuff. But, I have to say, every time I see the brown cashmere in the picture below, I like it.

I'll probably use my Lionbrand stash to make baby items, cause they also need to be easy to wash. But if money were no object, I would use Blue Sky Cotton for all baby items.

I've seen some really nice projects with Lionbrand stuff. Elinor is making the coolest blanket out of the chenille. Lolly is working on lovely kneesocks in Wool Ease. Ragan makes cool socks!

Now, if I could never use Lionbrand again, I wouldn't be too sad. But I can't guarantee that I'll never buy it again, just not too soon. I need to use up what I have and I did buy a *few* things at Stitches (which I'll talk about soon).

Lionbrand Goes Upscale?

Check out Lionbrand's recent newsletter. They are selling a new line of handpainted luxury yarn: 100 percent cashmere, mohair and silk, etc. And they have the luxury prices of $40 and $20 to match. I know those prices aren't unusual for handpainted yarn, especially in all-natural fibers. Heck, the cashmere price might even be "cheap" for cashmere (which is about 100 yards of worsted weight for $40). I don't price 100 percent cashmere often. I know I've seen it for much more than $40 a skein. But they are much higher than the typical Lionbrand yarns.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of selection in the colors. And they aren't wowing me. They just seem dull. Normally when I see handpainted yarn, I think "wow, that is amazingly beautiful." Of course, it could be my screen. But most of the colors are earthy and dark. They don't have to be neon, but, on my screen at least, they look dull.

I think it is an interesting development for Lionbrand. I wonder if this new "Masterpiece Collection" will be sold at Michael's? I doubt it. Doesn't fit the Michael's customer. And it doesn't seem to fit the Lionbrand target market. I guess they are trying to expand their market. But, it seems that the people who don't like Lionbrand, REALLY don't like it. So why would they spend $20 on a yarn they can't touch (assuming it will only be available online) from a company they don't like? And the people who really LIKE Lionbrand are attracted to the easy, washable, cheap acrylic stuff.

Interesting ...

So Long, Socktoberfest

Today is the last day of Socktober-
fest and I didn't finish my socks. I am sad about it. I had plenty of time. I had motivation. But I didn't have wrist ability, apparently. I thought giving knitting a break for a few days would let it heal. Of course, I did sneak a few rows here and there. But I know there were at least three days in a row when I did not knit. I should probably go to the doctor. But I am afraid he'll say that I can't knit for months. I've had periods of time where my neck was sore for a few weeks, or my lower back. And eventually the pain went away on its own. I was kinda hoping that would happen for my wrists. I suspect the problem is my desk; while my wrists are straight when I type, my arms, from the elbow to the wrist, are angled up. So now I am hoping if I get a new desk, that will help. And I won't need to go to the doctor and be told no knitting.

Bummed. There is so much I want to work on!

Other than being sad about lack of knitting, I had a nice weekend. On Sunday, I went to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire with my friend L. It was the last day for their faire. Last year, we also went on the last day. I really like the Penn faire. First, it was a beautiful day: cool and crisp with a gorgeous moon the whole way home. It goes until 8:00, and at this time of year, got nice and dark.

The grounds seem bigger than the Maryland faire, but that could just be cause I don't know the Penn one as well.

There seem to be a few more vendors; several are just in tents. And there is more stuff to buy in the middle price range. At the Maryland faire, there is a lot of really expensive stuff and cheap stuff (that looks cheap), but not a lot in between. I got a pretty blue necklace, a pair of "genie" pants and an ankle bracelet.

The last two will be good for bellydance. The Penn faire has a ton of vendors w/ bellydance stuff. It's funny that the faire in the middle of Amish country has more bellydance stuff than the MD one.

The Penn faire was also a lot less crowded than the MD one. Though, it was the last day, so it is hard to compare. I hope next year, we can go before the last day.

It was about a two hour drive from my place in northern Baltimore. Sadly, it can take that long, or longer to get to the MD faire in Crownsville on busy days.

Also, at the Penn faire, we seemed to talk to more people. The MD faire seems a bit clique-y and extreme. For example, at the MD faire, there are the really hard core faire people who hang out at the pubs and have "faire" names, have scary facial piercings and get married there, etc., and at the other end, the families there for the day and frat boys oggling cleavage. L and I dress up, but not in an obsessed, everything has to be historically accurate way. Just cause it's fun and cause curvy girls look hot in bodices. The Penn faire seemed to have more people dressed up, but more like us, less extreme. And we just seemed to strike up conversations with more people. But who knows what it is like earlier in the season. That is why I need to do research next year! :)

I felt sad when it was over; no more Faire until next August. But ... one of the vendors told us about a winter faire in New Jersey called Wicked. It's more of an adult faire, no kids allowed. Hmmm, that could be fun in a good bawdy way, or it could be scary (in a bdsm way). Maybe both. :) I don't know if I am enough a faire dork to travel overnight.

Oh, the coolest thing about the Penn faire was all the handknits we saw! It seemed every other girl had on a knitted shawl or harm warmers or hats. Very cool.

Still no Knitting

Thanks for all the comments about my wrist. It feels OK today, but was still sore yesterday. And I haven't been knitting. I have no idea what I did. It is probably from typing or something. But last night, I couldn't even clap when we saw Hem (again, yes twice in one week. We are officially groupies. But it was their last show for awhile because Sally, the singer, is pregnant. And it was an amazing show. More later). So, I instead of clapping I sort slapped my thigh w/ my left hand. Ouch.

Yesterday, we took the day off and spent the day in D.C. We drove down to Falls Church, then took the metro into the city. I was very excited for this excursion, mostly because I got to see the sloth bear baby. (Inspired by Coleen's post a few weeks ago, I brought my camera.) Last year, Geoff and I went to the zoo in December and it was great: no crowds, the male tiger was roaring (and he was again yesterday. We were there at 4:00 both times, maybe that is near his feeding time?). We saw the pandas, but not the baby. But a few months ago, I read an article about the sloth bear baby, Balawat. The article mentioned how everyone was panda crazy, but that the baby panda, while cute, was really pretty boring. It just sleeps and eats bamboo. We did see him doing that yesterday, and I admit it was pretty cute (as evidenced in the top picture). So I can understand the fuss. And one of his parents was pretty cute too.

But the article also mentioned that there was a baby sloth bear that wasn't really that cute, but had a cuter personality because it would play with a ball and run around, etc. And ever since I read the article (in August??) I have wanted to see the baby sloth bear. For the past week, I have been talking about the sloth baby nonstop. I even made up a stupid song about seeing the sloth bear baby. G thought I was crazy. I just really wanted to see Balawat. And I finally did. And he was cute! Kind of ugly cute, but cute. He was sleeping with his mother all curled up right next to the glass when we arrived, which was very cute, but I wanted to see him playing. So we went to the rest of the zoo and came back to the sloth bears around 4:00 and they were up, eating bugs out of rocks, climbing on branches and just being cute. I loved it!



The sloth bears live in the zoo's new Asia Trail, which just opened and it is really nice.

We also saw a cool fishing cat that seemed about to catch a fish at any moment but probably spent the entire day like that and a family of adorable river otters.



After the zoo, we headed over to U Street and went to the Saloon so G could get some rare beer and I could have some real apple schnaps. Yum! Then we had dinner across the street at Dukem for an Ethiopian dinner. Double yum.

After dinner, we hopped back on the metro to Falls Church and the State Theater for Hem.

My brother arrived safely in China and is already having adventures. I may post stories from him from time to time. I find it terribly funny that my beer-pong playing brother will be teaching future monks.

Today I am off to a measuring party, a la the book Big Girl Knits. Someday, I'll make a sweater.

Safe Travels, Brother

Today my younger brother Andy is off to Tibet for the next several months on a service project. He'll be teaching English to the young monks-in-training: little boys who will someday be monks. I am really excited for him, but a little nervous too. It is so far and seems so remote. But he's probably going to have email so it won't be much different than him being in Wisconsin. Except he'll be in Tibet, where they have rabid dogs. OK, I'm being dramatic. He's going to be fine. And I really am excited for him and proud of him. I just can't help feeling big sisterly and worry a little bit.

But he needs adventure and I can understand that. I had my year abroad years ago. Course I only went to France where there aren't rabid dogs (at least not many) but plenty of guys who pinch. And then almost two years ago, I decided to leave Madison, where I had lived for 10 years, and move to Baltimore, basically on a whim. It helped that I was moving in with best friend L here. Having a good friend helped make it an adventure and not scary.

Luckily, Andy isn't going alone either. He's got his girlfriend, who also happens to be our sister-in-law. We have some tangled relationships in our family. So anyway, Andy and Katch are off to Tibet together. Good luck guys and have fun! I'll miss you.

Oh, yeah, that's Andy in the blue. Yes, he is playing beer bong. And yes, it was at my wedding. I did not play. But my brothers, they could compete professionally. Sorry, dude, don't think you'll find beer bong in Tibet. But knowing you, you'll find a way with the local barley beer.

This Is Why There Is No Progress on My Sock

Ouch! My wrist was swollen and sore last night. And I didn't knit much this weekend. I was too busy poking around Annapolis and at the Ren Faire. I knit like two rows last night and had to put it down.

But after a day wrapped, it is feeling a little better. I am going to stop by Riteaid on the way home from my bellydance class to get some proper wrist guards, or at least more tape.

More Knit Spotting

It happened again. G pointed out a hand knit item to me. Yesterday we were at the Hem show in Annapolis (and FYI, DO NOT go to Annapolis when Navy is playing AND there is a boat show; but the show was worth the terrible traffic). He noticed before I did that the violinist was wearing a pair of pink arm warmers. They were cute and increased (my already very great) desire to knit them. As soon as I finish the sock. But I also want to make a sweater for myself and a couple of Christmas presents. But the arm warmers would surely go fast! And I really want them.

This is Funny

It's a knitted turkey. A knitted turkey that is knitting. Makes me laugh every time I look.

Don't Know What to Call This Ramble

Recently, G and I were out to dinner. A woman being seated at the next table was wearing an interesting knitted sweater or shrug. I looked at it for a minute, trying to decide if it was handmade. G looked too, tilted his head, and sort of whispered "knit?" "I don't know; it might be crochet," I replied. But then I smiled and realized that he had recognized a (possibly) hand-knit item!

My hobby is sneaking in on him, whether he likes it or not! Actually, I think he'll be quite happy w/ my hobby when I make him a pair of socks. He's already been eying mine.

He is actually quite supportive: He cooks when I go to my knitting groups and doesn't say anything about my stash enhancement. (OK, he cooks even when I don't go; we've got a system: he cooks when I go to knit and I cook when he works late. And we take turns the rest of the time. It's my turn tonight and I am trying out the crock pot we got as a wedding gift. I am totally winging it, so I hope it tastes good!)

I think it is interesting how our partners' or friends' habits can become our own. While I don't think that G will ever actually knit himself, it has obviously made an impression on him that he now notices people's knits in public! I am trying to think of a way that I've picked up something he does. I do watch more football than I did before. But I used to watch football w/ my five brothers a lot. I just don't like to watch it alone. So my football interest just stayed dormant for a few years. He doesn't really have hobbies (other than reading and we both always did that). The closest thing is that he likes to see a lot of live music and he likes to quiz me on what classic rock or classic metal, etc. band is on the radio or commercial. I usually fail. He did get me into Hem (and now we're going to see them on Saturday AND next Friday; I am so excited!).

I do find myself going to more beer bars that I used to. And he comes to the Ren Faire with me. He came to see Shakira with me in D.C. last August and I told him I'll see Kiss the next time they tour. He watches Project Runway with me and if we can ever figure out when it's on, I'll watch the Gene Simmons "family jewels" show on A&E.

But, I know he wouldn't watch The Bachelor with me. And I'm not going to see any Led Zeppelin tribute bands perform. I've been reading some of the books on his shelf, but I don't expect (and frankly don't want) him to read my Nora Roberts collection. But I know he'll read the antique edition of Anne of Green Gables (that he got me for Christmas last year) to any future kids we might have. He wants us to take a ballroom dance class but thank god he's not interested in bellydance (other than watching me dance, of course!).

I guess what I am trying to say, very poorly, is that it's great when you share things with your partner and try the things that they like. It doesn't make G "whipped" that he recognizes knitting or watches Dancing With the Stars with me. And I can still be a proud feminist who knits while she watches football. Spending that time together is the important thing. But just as important, I think, is that we don't HAVE to always be together and don't have ALL the same interests.

It's a pretty simple conclusion, I guess. Probably didn't need a big, long post. I swear, I logged on just to tell the funny story about G and the sweater. It was going to be one paragraph, max. This is not the first time a quick post turned into a long ramble. And I call myself an editor. Gheesh.

A Finished Sock

At last, my finished sock. I finished this on Sunday (perfect timing as it was the first day of Soctoberbest!). It has some mistakes: There is a hole in the ribbing, holes at the top of the heel flap where I failed to pick up stitches, and the toe is funky. While working the foot, the number of stitches on each needle got mixed up and when I started decreasing for the toe, I didn't think it mattered. As I got closer to the end, I realized that my decreased were not going to result in equal stitches on the last two needles in order to kitchener. But it turns out I had double the amount of stitches on the back needed that I had on the front needle, so I while working the back needle, I pretended two stitches were one. I was so close the end that I didn't have the heart to rip out the entire toe and it seemed to work. I maybe could have made the foot a tiny bit longer; I will on the second sock.

And good news, I started the second sock right away. I want to finish this pair in October!

Close up of the toe and foot:



And see how much bigger this foot is than a store-bought sock!



So, with half a pair done, I can respond to Lolly's sock history questionnaire:

When did you start making socks? Did you teach yourself or were you taught by a friend or relative? Or in a class?
I started swatching for socks in April. I realized my size 3 needles were too big, so I went to size 2s, still too big and ended up w/ 0s. I started my sock in July or August. I learned from Silver's online tutorial.

What was your first pair? How have they "held up" over time?
I am halfway done w/ my first pair. I hope they hold up.

What would you have done differently?
Finished sooner! :) Well, I would try to avoid the mistakes mentioned above.

What yarns have you particularly enjoyed?
I am using Regia Cotton Color (thanks to my Tea Swap pal, Sarah HB!). I enjoyed it. I am looking forward to starting my second pair w/ some Trekking I bought months ago.

Do you like to crochet your socks? or knit them on DPNs, 2 circulars, or using the Magic Loop method?
I knit my sock on size 0 bamboo Crystal Palace DPNs and really enjoyed working with them, even though I got a callous on my left pointer finger. I was terrified that I would break one, but so far, haven't! I am thinking of ordering the knitpicks metal DPNs.

Which kind of heel do you prefer? (flap? or short-row?)
I liked the flap heel. Haven't tried short row yet.

How many pairs have you made?
Half!

Socktoberfest

I joined Lolly's Socktoberfest and have almost finished my first sock. I'll work on the second during October. I know that I've been saying that it would be done for a long time, but it really is! I just need to get a needle to graft it together. It's been all but done since last weekend. I thought I'd finish it then, but alas, I did not have the supplies I needed. But this weekend, I will get myself to a craft store, buy the proper needle and finish these suckers.

I did get lots of other errands done. It was a good weekend:

cleaned out my car (not fun, but needed to be done)

washed some quilts at the laundry mat

picked up some yarn from A Good Yarn, oh la la!

went to the farm stand near our house on Sat. (yum, local corn, eggplant, summer squash!) and the Baltimore farmer's market on Sun. (yum, perfectly ripe Asian pears, tomatoes, mozerrella, basil--made a great salad last night)

heard a little bit of the Who while taking out the garbage. They were performing at the Virgin Mobile Fest, just a few blocks away at Pimlico. G was at the concert with his aunt. I had no interest in attending: huge crowds + hot weather + bands that I don't really like all that much + a lot of money = not my thing. Now if it had been a concert/yarn fest, then I would have been there!

Pie and Yarn (and socks)

On my last trip to Madison, Wis., I visited my favorite bakery, LMNO Pies. She makes the best pie ever. And there are at least 50 kinds of fruit pie alone. Plus cream pies and savory pies, meat pies, pasties, quiches, cookies, brownies, cheesecakes, and more. For a great lunch when I'm at HQ, I get half a pasty with a side of fruit salad, a cookie and a drink for about $6. The woman who owns it has three daughters and the youngest one (born in July) was sleeping strapped to her back as she worked the last time I was there.

So, I love the place (and is one of the places that I still miss; it had just opened a few months before I moved out to Baltimore; I never got to try all the pies!). Imagine my surprise when I stopped in last week and saw ... jars of yarn! She had one wall lined w/ shelves of yarn in jars. It is this tiny shop, but so cutely decorated and the jars of yarn for sale are perfect. I even saw the Regia sock yarn that I am currently using. So if you are ever in Madison (or technically, Fitchburg, just next door) stop by LMNO Pies for tasty treats to satisfy all your cravings. Honestly, I have no connection to this shop. What can I say, I just love pie and yarn.

So, I worked on my sock this weekend. It really is almost done, thanks to one baby shower, two flights, three (or four?) football games. I have to say, I've loved working on it since starting the heel flap. I hated doing the five inches of ribbing (and I even made this shorter than called for, partly because I was afraid I'd run out of yarn since I have long feet--size 10 1/2--and partly because I hated doing that much ribbing. It went very slow.).

I tried it on last night here is a picture from the front (please pardon my lone strip of nail polish, anybody need a pedicure? But at least I shaved today!):



and from the back:



Question, it is right up next to my toes on the front, but not the back. This could be because I have crazy toes that curl. So, should I keep knitting the foot until the back is right up to my toes, or is it time to shape the toe? Another pattern says to start the toe two inches minus the total number of inches in your foot (so for me about 8 1/2 inches). Should I just do that?

Other news:
I chopped my hair off. Yeah! It was driving me crazy. But, see I had to wait until I was back in Wisconsin because, even after almost two years in Baltimore, I still haven't found a hair stylist. I haven't really looked. I think it is time to transition this. I am thinking of trying out an Aveda salon on Falls Rd. in Mount Washington. But if anyone has recommondations, please let me know!

G and I had a nice Friday night. We went down to Fells Point (just as Oyster Fest was ending around 9, so only heard the last few songs of the set, oh well). But we had dinner at Shuckers. Good oysters, good fish and chips, good crab cake (G thinks it is the best he's had, but I am partial to the ones at Jennings Cafe in Catonsville), some nice Riesling, a table outside facing the water, then off to Maxs for the beer (for G, that is, I stuck to water), hmmm good times. But poor G got really sick later that night. We thought it was food poisoning, but he's still feeling bad. Poor guy.

I was going to go to my bellydance class tonight, but I need to work. I would have finished up earlier, but my QuarkXPress isn't working right now. I need to restart, again. Hope that works. In the meantime, I am blogging.

And here is a picture from the Maine wedding G and I went to last month:

Live From the Quality Inn--Again

Maybe I have to be on the road in order to blog. Maybe I have to be at this Quality Inn in order to blog. At least there aren't any tornado warnings tonight. But it has been raining since I got here. And it looks like that weather will follow me right home to Baltimore. Sorry friends.

I am back at headquarters for a few days. But after this trip I have a travel relief: no trips til November! (But then I'll have two a month--half personal, half for work--through mid February. I am going to savor these next few weeks at home, especially the weekends!!!)

Aside: I am watching reruns of Sex and the City on the WB. It's the one where Miranda runs away from Steve on the street after they break up and then he stops by her apartment and she cries, then later they have breakup sex. I love Steve. Such a cute dork.

OK, back to the post. What is new? Went to my a baby shower for my sister-in-law in Chicago on Saturday (one of the perks of this work travel: I get to see lots of family!). She got lots of cute, cuddly, soft things. I didn't make anything. A few weeks ago I thought of running to the yarn store and buying some bulky baby yarn but I just ... didn't. That's OK. My mom made her a knitted blanket and a quilt. At the party, I worked on my sock (picture coming soon, I promise) and several people asked me who it was for. My great aunt asked me if it was for my husband. One woman even asked if it was for "someone special." I said, "well it's for me!" I am special. :)

But I wish I were almost done with my second sock. :)

Another aside: I heard a Hem song on a TV commercial for Liberty Mutual today. Cool! I am so excited for them. I am not the kind of person who wants her favorite band to stay underground. No, I want everyone to know and love Hem. Then I found out they are coming back to Ramshead in Oct. and to somewhere in Falls Church. G and I will definitely see them at one of those shows. And speaking of music, love the Justin Timberlake song SexyBack. Love it. So crusty (crusty means kitchy, cheesy, the stuff of guilty pleasures). I think it may make it on to my iTunes soon, much to my husband's dismay, I'm sure.

Speaking of husbands, he tells me I got a package of yarn from Elann this week! Yeah, can't wait to see it and touch it. And like four yarn catalogs. Exciting.

I'll get some batteries in my camera and post all sorts of pictures this weekend.